Chapter XXIV: Section 13: provided that “if any person declared free by this or any law (7)

The General Assembly was prohibited from making provision for the payment of any debt or obligation created in the name of the Commonwealth by the pretended State authorities at Richmond; and it was also forbidden to permit any county, city or corporation to levy or collect taxes for the discharge of any debt incurred for the purpose of aiding any rebellion against the State or the United States, or to provide for the payment of any bonds held by rebels in arms.[451]

The Confederate capital, long deemed impregnable, fell on the 2d of April. Within a week came tidings of the surrender of Lee’s entire army, greatly reduced in numbers, it is true, but hitherto the main reliance of the Confederacy. Mr. Lincoln, apparently, was not altogether without expectation of some such fortunate outcome of the extensive preparations that had been made for ensuring the success of the final campaign, and on the following day, April 10, 1865, he sent from Washington to the executive head of the restored State this telegram:

=Governor Pierpont=, _Alexandria, Virginia_:

Please come up and see me at once.[452]

=A. Lincoln.=

Mr. Pierpont, as the writer has been credibly informed, called by request on President Lincoln during the week of his assassination, evidently in response to this telegram, when they spent three hours together in conversation. No third party appears to have been present at their consultation. The topic discussed it is not difficult to imagine. Shortly before his death, which occurred in March, 1899, Governor Pierpont informed his daughter that he never believed Andrew Johnson carried out Mr. Lincoln’s idea in the reconstruction of Virginia.[453] That policy, however, had not then, April 10, assumed definitive form in the mind of the President himself, for he expressly stated to Mr. Pierpont that he had no plan for reorganization, but must be guided by events. His last public utterance establishes the correctness of this statement.

Four weeks later President Johnson by executive order recognized the Alexandria establishment, and toward the close of the same month, May 26, 1865, Mr. Pierpont, with other members of his government, arrived in Richmond. The sneer of Thaddeus Stevens that the archives and property of loyal Virginia were conveyed to the new capital in an ambulance affords at least an adequate idea of the feeble condition of the restored State. But notwithstanding the absence of all pomp and his lack of the usual emblems of authority the Governor, we are told, was received in a very flattering manner.

Virginia, which emerged from the struggle crippled by the loss of an important part of her domain, suffered more in the destruction of the elements of wealth than any of her errant sisters, and though entering somewhat reluctantly on a career of rebellion, she was the only member of the Confederacy that was permanently weakened. Industry could never repair the alienation of her territory. While it may appear that the General Government acted harshly toward a State to which the Union owed so much, the preceding pages show clearly that the loss of her trans-Alleghany counties was due chiefly to an unwise administration of her internal affairs. Notwithstanding the statement of Mr. Blaine, the writer does not think that Virginia was singled out for punishment. But even apart from her dismemberment the ravages of war fell most heavily on the Old Dominion. There it was that the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia contended longest for supremacy. Troops in their marches and countermarches foraged liberally on her people, sometimes without distinction of friend or foe. Concrete illustrations will occur to every reader acquainted with the military history of the great conflict. The devastation of the Shenandoah valley was only a striking example of what was constantly occurring within more restricted areas of the State. Barns and dwelling houses, fences and crops perished in the universal destruction. Cattle were either killed or carried off, and even the implements of husbandry were frequently devoted to the flames. The injury thus sustained by agricultural interests was followed in many districts by an alarming scarcity of food during the ensuing years, and to escape starvation numbers of her citizens fled from once happy homes. Newspaper correspondents in their progress through the State describe scenes of wretchedness and distress. In exploring for their journals wide regions that had recently been the theatre of war they witnessed spectacles of want, hunger and despair. Uncultivated tracts in the wake of the armies contributed to heighten the picture of desolation. Richmond, the centre of so many interesting historical associations, though long exempt from pillage, perished ultimately in a conflagration. In short, nearly every landmark of prosperity was effaced by the calamities of war.

To repair these ravages, to repeople these solitudes, to revive commerce and agriculture, to restore tranquillity and maintain order was the stupendous task before Governor Pierpont, in whose public career it may be regarded as the second stage. After the formation of West Virginia, in which he had acted a conspicuous and honorable part, and one that can scarcely be overrated, his exertions barely sufficed to preserve the continuity of a loyal government in his native State. In the former undertaking he had the coöperation of nearly every person of consideration beyond the Alleghanies. His efforts in Richmond, however, received but indifferent support. Whites of little influence and negroes who were still but prospective citizens made up the greater number of his adherents. A handful of secessionists, it is true, set the example of obedience to the laws, though they found among their late associates but few imitators. It was from such material and in such circumstances that Mr. Pierpont was to reconstruct the grand old Commonwealth. The Governor, however, applied himself at once to the duties imposed by his office. He appointed persons to reorganize the various counties by holding elections for local officers, though in numerous instances he merely authorized to act for the preservation of peace those citizens whom the military officers might select. The difficulties of the situation were such that he summoned the Legislature to meet in special session at Richmond on the 20th of June.

In response to this request the lawmaking body assembled at the appointed time. The Executive message on that occasion related concisely what had been done by the restored government subsequent to June, 1861. It also stated that since his arrival at the capital the Governor had conversed with intelligent men of every shade of political opinion and representing every part of Virginia. He was convinced, he said, that if the test of loyalty prescribed by their constitution was enforced in the election and qualification of officers, it would render organization impracticable in most of the counties. It was folly to suppose that a State could be administered “under a republican form of government where in a large portion of the State, nineteen twentieths of the people are disfranchised and cannot hold office. But, fortunately, by the terms of the constitution, the General Assembly has control of this subject. The restricting clauses of the constitution were devised in time of war.... Men accept the facts developed by the logic of the past four years, declare that they have taken the oath of allegiance to the Government of the United States without mental reservation, and intend to be, and remain, loyal to the Government of their fathers. It would not be in accordance with the spirit of that noble Anglo-Saxon race, from which we boast our common origin, to strike a fallen brother, or impose upon him humiliating terms after a fair surrender.”[454]

For the oath required by the State constitution he suggested the substitution of that prescribed by the President, or one of similar character; he also recommended the passage of an act to legalize marriage between persons of color, and the appointment of a day for holding elections of Representatives to Congress and for members of the Legislature in those counties where none had been chosen.

The subject of disfranchisement was immediately taken up in both Houses, and the result of their action was to allow the suffrage to those who, upon taking the amnesty oath, had not held office under the Confederacy or its State governments. Those who had done so could neither vote nor hold office. The Legislature submitted to the people, to be determined at the election in October succeeding, the question of removing this restriction upon officeholders.

This action of the Assembly was followed by the appearance of a large number of competitors for office, and considerable interest was awakened. Finding, however, that they would be unable to take the oath required by Congress many of the candidates for the national Legislature withdrew. The President was asked by some citizens of Albemarle County whether, in his opinion, Congress would probably insist upon the oath. The following reply to their inquiry was made by Attorney-General Speed:

The President has referred to me your letter, dated Charlottesville,
Virginia, September, 1865, and I am instructed by him to say that he
has no more means of knowing what Congress may do in regard to the
oath about which you inquire than any other citizen. It is his
earnest wish that loyal and true men, to whom no objections can be
made, should be elected to Congress.

This is not an official letter, but a simple expression of
individual opinion and wish.[455]

The election was held on October 12, the vote polled being the smallest ever given in the history of the State. In the first eight Congressional districts, however, it exceeded 40,000. The constitutional amendment met with very little opposition, many counties voting unanimously to remove the restriction upon the suffrage.[456] The Assembly then chosen convened at Richmond on December 4, 1865, the time fixed for the meeting of Congress.

While it is true that there were grounds for apprehension regarding the stability of the new governments instituted in these four States, the principal cause of anxiety to the Administration was the disorganized political and social condition of the remaining members of the late Confederacy. It was universally agreed that with the destruction of its military power the authority of that government was completely extinguished. From that moment until the revival within them of Federal laws these commonwealths were destitute of all legislation of a general character. Under our dual principle of government, however, this could be endured temporarily. But the absence of a central organism would soon be evident in the reappearance of those alarming symptoms which marked American political and industrial life in the critical period between the Treaty of Paris, in 1783, and the inauguration, nearly six years later, of the present national system. In that unhappy interval, however, the authority of the various States was ample for the regulation of domestic affairs, while in the deranged and confused times succeeding the Rebellion seven entire commonwealths were left without any general or any particular government. Their territory, indeed, had passed under control of the Union forces, for when the Administration of Jefferson Davis was overthrown the disloyal State establishments, of which it was only an emanation, fell likewise. Though internal progress was not seriously to be expected in this situation, tolerable order was preserved by Federal soldiers, who occupied the entire region between the Potomac and the Rio Grande, for even in those States reorganized under Executive auspices civil authority was not yet established on a foundation sufficiently secure to maintain itself without assistance from the military power of the nation.

Besides the absence of all civil government there were other elements of discord that tended to increase the confusion in these States. Their population, it need scarcely be observed, was not homogeneous. The decree of emancipation together with the incidents of war had brought freedom to almost the entire slave population of the South. This was soon to be confirmed by the proposed constitutional amendment, which was designed both to place beyond question the status of freedmen and to strike the shackles from the limbs of the last bondman in the loyal as well as in the disloyal States. About the middle of December nearly 4,000,000 negroes bereft of the hand that bestowed their daily sustenance found themselves suddenly dependent for support upon their own exertions. The General Government, it is true, by creating the Bureau of Freedmen and Refugees, diminished considerably the danger from this source, though this relief by no means solved the problem of transforming the recent slave into a useful member of society; besides, the bureau itself subsequently degenerated into a fruitful source of abuse.

Nor were Southern whites by any means unanimous as to the best policy to adopt in the circumstances in which an unsuccessful rebellion had placed them. Between Union men and secessionists there existed a feeling of extreme bitterness. Even among members of the latter class there was considerable difference of opinion, as in North Carolina, where the former Whigs, by the moderation of their views as much as by constantly agitating the question of reconstruction, had somewhat embarrassed the Richmond authorities while war was still flagrant. Add to these causes of disorder the discontent of thousands of disbanded soldiers who returned in the gloom of defeat not infrequently to ruined homes and wasted fields. Then, too, there was the disappointment and humiliation naturally felt by a brave and impulsive people who had fought gallantly in support of a cause condemned, indeed, by the civilized world, but believed by them to be not only just but indispensable to their prosperity and happiness.

Though a volume could be profitably employed in describing, town by town and county by county, the extent of destruction inflicted on the South, a few brief paragraphs must suffice to suggest an imperfect idea of the enormous loss of wealth sustained by that section. The wreck of four members of the Confederacy has been noticed in the preceding pages. That rapid sketch, however, took no account of the damage to individuals by the liberation of their slaves, for, except in those instances where negroes left the commonwealth, that was not in any sense a loss to the State. If it were, a community, by reducing to servitude a part of its inhabitants, could at any time increase the amount of its capital. It is only from the slaveholder’s point of view, therefore, that emancipation can be regarded as a pecuniary loss. Immense damage was sustained by both North and South in the withdrawal of millions of men from the various fields of production. The energy of these multitudes, which was rapidly making the United States the most opulent and powerful nation on the globe, had exerted itself for four years in the destruction of former accumulations.

Almost at the moment that the star of the Confederacy had begun to decline the imperial State of Georgia, hitherto exempt from punishment, was wasted by fire and sword. Sometimes the Southern, sometimes the Northern army stripped the country of everything capable of supporting life. Crops had been harvested, indeed, but this served only to facilitate their destruction. In the retreat of Johnston and the advance of Sherman toward Atlanta highways had been injured, bridges burned and many lines of railroad completely destroyed. Dwellings, when they interfered with military operations, were levelled by even the Confederate army, and the Union forces could not be expected to show greater consideration for the property of public enemies. General Hood not only wasted the vast stores accumulated in Atlanta but burned habitations when they stood in the way of his fortifications. Though winter was rapidly approaching, the Federal commander deemed it necessary after the capture of that stronghold to expel from their abodes a considerable part of its population. A brief truce, it is true, enabled the miserable inhabitants to remove a part of their effects farther south; thousands, outcasts from their ruined homes, were thus driven to wander among strangers whose bounty had already been taxed by earlier fugitives; both classes were dependent for their maintenance on the precarious charity of an impoverished people. Crowded dwellings forced great numbers in the inclement weather to seek shelter in the neighboring forests, where they found a safe refuge, indeed, but a scanty subsistence. Over the region traversed by Sherman and Johnston the forces of Hood soon after traced a devastating march northward to Dalton. The mischiefs of the great march to Savannah have frequently been described. Its beginning was announced by the blaze of burning buildings, and when the last of the Federal soldiers had set their faces toward the sea the city of Atlanta was little more than a mass of smoking ruins. Though the region traversed was probably the richest in the State, extensive misery accompanied the progress of the army. The meat and the vegetables needed for his command were taken by the Union General. Horses, mules and wagons were freely appropriated; slaves also were assisted to escape from their masters. Mills and cotton-gins were frequently devoted to the flames. In Milledgeville factories, storehouses and public buildings were destroyed. The principal edifices of Macon perished about the same time. Indeed, Augusta was the only considerable place in the State that escaped serious harm. The people in northwestern Georgia were in the utmost destitution, large families being frequently for whole days without food; venerable persons of both sexes, sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, often walked fifteen and even twenty miles to procure food enough to prevent starvation. The injury to all the usual means of transportation greatly increased the difficulty of bringing relief. When the conflict had ended, however, Federal officers did what they could to alleviate the almost universal distress, and their magnanimity was not without influence on the future conduct of many an ex-Confederate veteran.

South Carolina, the fatal State that woke the sword of war, did not suffer greatly in the earlier stages of the conflict, though even then her foreign commerce was extinguished and her agriculture interrupted along the coast. Before its close, however, she was destined to experience most of its horrors. A restless generation of agitators had assiduously inculcated the notion that the South was ruthlessly oppressed by Yankee avarice. This teaching bore fruit, and the people of South Carolina, coming to regard themselves as little better than tributary slaves, were easily persuaded to resort to the wager of battle. With the progress of the contest this proud State was growing weaker within, hostile pressure was constantly increasing from without. Time at length and the fortunes of war had brought round their revenge, and when the veterans of Sherman turned northward from Savannah the Palmetto State was powerless to prevent, or seriously to retard, their advance. Transportation was greatly embarrassed by the destruction of the bridges as well as the tracks of almost every important railway within the State. Immense quantities of cotton and numbers of cotton warehouses, uncounted dwellings and depots, machine shops and foundries, as well as several sailing vessels and steamboats were consumed by flames. Besides these blackened memorial’s of disaster and defeat, the stately cities of Charleston and Columbia were almost simultaneously laid in ruins by great conflagrations. The inability of the civil authorities to furnish food for his army constrained General Sherman to forage for supplies. In this manner all the cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry, even the little stores of meal, treasured as the last barrier against want, were consumed, and the people left entirely without subsistence. To prevent general starvation the Confederate commander was compelled to distribute the rations of his soldiers among the wretched inhabitants. From various causes many ancient and wealthy families found themselves suddenly reduced to a condition of beggary, and so low was the condition of the public treasury that the Legislature as early as the mid-summer of 1865 had already begun seriously to discuss the question of repudiation.

With some slight alterations this picture of South Carolina’s ills will serve for that of her northern and more deserving sister, so far at least as concerns those parts overrun by the contending hosts. The cessation of hostilities stopped the carnival of death and silenced the engines of destruction before half of North Carolina’s territory had been crossed. From the first years of the war there were numerous instances of privation among the loyalists of that State. Toward its close the more favored classes also began to feel the pressure of want. The negroes required and received assistance from the Freedmen’s Bureau. The whites, refugees as well as secessionists, were aided by the commanders of the rival forces.

Florida, fortunately for her people, was so remote from the principal scenes of war that she felt few of its evils. Battles, it is true, occurred within the State, but they were as skirmishes compared to the bloody engagements which took place elsewhere. The same observations are substantially true of Texas. A fringe of Mississippi’s territory, too, had been swept by the furnace-blast of war. The extensive movements around Corinth, Iuka, Vicksburg, Jackson and Port Hudson will suggest the extent of destruction that visited the northern half of that State. There existed considerable privation in that section, though no general distress as in other members of the Confederacy.

All the Gulf States, however, were not equally fortunate. Though long impending, the fate of Alabama came swiftly. Almost in the same hour she was invaded from the north and menaced from the south. A large portion of her material resources was already exhausted when the cavalry raids of General Wilson spread terror and devastation through the interior counties. The city of Selma was laid in ashes; smaller towns and villages were likewise consumed by flames; schools and colleges, private buildings and public edifices perished in the universal wreck. Monuments of ruin were everywhere conspicuous throughout a region the most productive, probably, in all the South. Silence and desolation reigned where but lately stood proud and hospitable mansions. Nor was the destruction of wealth or its elements the only injury sustained, for industry would soon repair the losses of capital. Labor itself had been severely crippled. Of the army of 122,000 soldiers which Alabama furnished to the cause of secession 35,000, it was estimated, had been left on the field of battle, and at least an equal number had been disabled for life. Mobile, enriched by the cotton trade, was silent as some ancient necropolis. Her splendid commerce was ruined; her stately ships were gone, and the wave broke unheeded on the shores of her deserted harbor.

This hurried summary conveys only a very inadequate notion of the complex problem which Mr. Johnson was forced to consider. His arduous duty was to repair the ravages of military violence, to evoke order from the discord of civil strife, to heal the wounds which the imperious power of slavery had inflicted upon industries and institutions; in a word, to restore the harmony of that Republic founded by the wisdom of Washington and preserved by the policy of Lincoln. The sentiments of the Chief Magistrate who was about to attempt this difficult but indispensable task it is now time to consider. His deliberate conclusions and his spontaneous utterances are best examined, it is believed, in something like chronological order.

On June 9, 1864, almost a year before his accession to the Presidency, he had said in addressing the people of Nashville:

But in calling a convention to restore the State, who shall restore
and reëstablish it?... Shall he who brought this misery upon the
State be permitted to control its destinies? If this be so, then all
this precious blood of our brave soldiers and officers so freely
poured out will have been wantonly spilled....

Why all this carnage and devastation? It was that treason might be
put down and traitors punished. Therefore I say that traitors should
take a back seat in the work of restoration. If there be but five
thousand men in Tennessee loyal to the Constitution, loyal to
freedom, loyal to justice, these true and faithful men should
control the work of reorganization and reformation absolutely. I say
that the traitor has ceased to be a citizen, and in joining the
rebellion has become a public enemy. He forfeited his right to vote
with loyal men when he renounced his citizenship and sought to
destroy our Government.... If we are so cautious about foreigners
who voluntarily renounce their homes to live with us what should we
say to the traitor, who, although born and reared among us, has
raised a parricidal hand against the Government which always
protected him? My judgment is that he should be subjected to a
severe ordeal before he is restored to citizenship.... Before these
repenting rebels can be trusted, let them bring forth the fruits of
repentance.... Treason must be made odious, and traitors must be
punished and impoverished. Their great plantations must be seized,
and divided into small farms, and sold to honest, industrious men.
The day for protecting the lands and negroes of these authors of the
rebellion is past. It is high time it was.[457]

Though he had never been accustomed to conceal his opinions on questions of public interest, and though there was no reason for supposing that his views on reorganization had changed in the months intervening between the Nashville speech and his inauguration, there was considerable curiosity, if not indeed impatience, to learn his sentiments on the paramount issue before the nation. Even the unparalleled excitement and profound regret occasioned by the assassination of Mr. Lincoln could not make men forget the grave questions which the changed conditions of the Union presented for the consideration of statesmen. Therefore the brief remarks addressed by the new Executive to those who were present at his inauguration were eagerly scrutinized for some indication of the principles which he was likely to adopt in the conduct of his Administration. The absence, however, of even a hint on that interesting subject gave universal disappointment, and anxious patriots were not reassured by his failure to announce any expression of a purpose to continue the policy of his predecessor. By his intimate friends this omission was construed as an intention to pursue in dealing with the South a less generous course than, it was believed, Mr. Lincoln had marked out.

Among the more extreme “Radicals” this surmise occasioned little regret, for they did not object to the accession of an Executive made, as they believed, of sterner stuff than the late incumbent. From his fierce denunciation of secessionists both while military governor of Tennessee and subsequently, it was generally understood that more stringent methods would be adopted by Mr. Johnson than had hitherto been employed. Among other things he said in his inaugural: “As to an indication of any policy which may be pursued by me in the administration of the Government, I have to say that that must be left for development, as the administration progresses. The message or declaration must be made by the acts as they transpire. The only assurance that I can now give of the future, is by reference to the past.”[458]

Delegations of citizens who waited upon him to tender their cordial support were assured in the most explicit terms that his past course was an indication of what his future policy would be. Three days after entering upon the duties of his office a deputation of distinguished persons called on Mr. Johnson under circumstances at once unusual and touching. The remains of the late President still lay in the White House. Before the sad procession of the dead left the national Capital for Springfield, Governor Oglesby, with other gentlemen from Illinois, called to assure the new Executive of their respect and confidence. His record, they declared, gave assurance to their State that in his hands they could safely trust the destinies of the Republic. The President responded in a speech discussing a far wider range of topics than he had treated in his inaugural. Appropriate reference to his predecessor, the tragical close of whose career was scarcely alluded to in his first address, was made in this more extended discourse. He spoke with unaffected and profound emotion. “The beloved of all hearts has been assassinated,” said he, “and when we trace this crime to its cause, when we remember the source whence the assassin drew his inspiration, and then look at the result, we stand yet more astounded at this most barbarous, most diabolical act.... We can trace its cause through successive steps back to that source which is the spring of all our woes. No one can say that if the perpetrator of this fiendish deed be arrested, he should not undergo the extremest penalty of the law known for crime: none will say that mercy should interpose. But is he alone guilty? Here, gentlemen, you perhaps expect me to present some indication of my future policy. One thing I will say: every era teaches its lesson. The times we live in are not without instruction. The American people must be taught—if they do not already feel—that treason is a crime and must be punished.... When we turn to the criminal code we find arson laid down as a crime with its appropriate penalty. We find theft and murder denounced as crimes, and their appropriate penalty prescribed; and there, too, we find the last and highest of crimes,—treason.... Let it be engraven on every mind that treason is a crime, and traitors shall suffer its penalty.... I do not harbor bitter or resentful feelings towards any.... When the question of exercising mercy comes before me it will be considered calmly, judicially—remembering that I am the Executive of the Nation. I know men love to have their names spoken of in connection with acts of mercy, and how easy it is to yield to that impulse. But we must never forget that what may be mercy to the individual is cruelty to the State.”

Commenting on this speech Mr. Blaine, from whom it is quoted, says that it “was reported by an accomplished stenographer, and was submitted to Mr. Johnson’s inspection before publication. It contained a declaration intimating to its hearers, if not explicitly assuring them, that ‘the policy of Mr. Lincoln in the past shall be my policy in the future.’ When in reading the report he came to this passage, Mr. Johnson queried whether his words had not been in some degree misapprehended; and while he was engaged with the stenographer in modifying the form of expression, Mr. Preston King, of New York, who was constantly by his side as adviser, interposed the suggestion that all reference to the subject be stricken out. To this Mr. Johnson promptly assented. He had undoubtedly gone farther than he intended in speaking to Mr. Lincoln’s immediate friends, and the correction—inspired by one holding the radical views of Mr. King—was equivalent to a declaration that the policy of Mr. Lincoln had been more conservative than that which he intended to pursue.”[459]

To a deputation of New Hampshire citizens he said in part: “This Government is now passing through a fiery, and, let us hope, its last ordeal—one that will test its powers of endurance, and will determine whether it can do what its enemies have denied—suppress and punish treason.” Though he had been urged, he asserted, by friends whose good opinion he valued, he refrained from foreshadowing in a public manifesto the policy which would guide him. He further observed on this occasion: “I know it is easy, gentlemen, for any one who is so disposed, to acquire a reputation for clemency and mercy. But the public good imperatively requires a just discrimination in the exercise of these qualities.... To relieve one from the penalty of crime may be productive of national disaster. The American people must be taught to know and understand that treason is a crime.... Treason is a crime, and must be punished as a crime. It must not be regarded as a mere difference of political opinion. It must not be excused as an unsuccessful rebellion, to be overlooked and forgiven. It is a crime before which all others sink into insignificance; and in saying this it must not be considered that I am influenced by angry or revengeful feelings.” He added, that to those who had been deluded and deceived by designing men, to those who had been only technically guilty of treason, he would accord amnesty, leniency and mercy. On the instigators of rebellion, however, should be visited “the full penalty of their crimes.”[460]

Replying, April 21, to an address of Governor Morton, who introduced a delegation from Indiana, he said: “Mine has been but one straightforward and unswerving course, and I see no reason why I should depart from it....

“I hold it as a solemn obligation in any one of these States where the rebel armies have been driven back or expelled—I care not how small the number of Union men, if enough to man the ship of State—I hold it, I say, a high duty to protect and secure to them a republican form of government. This is no new opinion.... In adjusting and putting the government upon its legs again, I think the progress of this work must pass into the hands of its friends. If a State is to be nursed until it again gets strength, it must be nursed by its friends, and not smothered by its enemies.”[461] To this delegation he declared himself not less opposed to consolidation than to dissolution and disintegration. In a brief reply on the same day to a deputation from Ohio he added nothing of value to these observations, and on the 24th of April he addressed in a similar strain a body of exiles from the South.

“The colored American asks but two things,” said the spokesman of a negro delegation about the same time, “that he have, first, complete emancipation, and secondly, full equality before American law.” To this the President replied, among other things, that he feared leading colored men did not “understand and appreciate the fact that they have friends on the south side of the line. They have, and they are as faithful and staunch as any north of the line. It may be a very easy thing, indeed popular, to be an emancipationist north of the line, but a very different thing to be such south of it. South of it, it costs a man effort, property, and perhaps life.”[462]

Two months later, June 24, in replying to an address of a South Carolina committee, he said in part: “The friction of the rebellion has rubbed out the nature and character of slavery. The loyal men who were compelled to bow and submit to the rebellion should, now that the rebellion is ended, stand equal to loyal men everywhere. Hence the wish of reconstruction, and the trying to get back the States to the point at which they formerly moved in perfect harmony.” He reminded them that as an institution slavery was gone, and said there was no hope that the people of South Carolina would be admitted into either the Senate or the House of Representatives until by their conduct they had afforded evidence of this truth. In their circumstances the true policy was to restore the State government, not through military rule, but by the action of the people.[463]

Desiring to relieve all loyal citizens and well-disposed persons from unnecessary trade restrictions, and to encourage a return to peaceful pursuits, the President removed, April 29, 1865, the interdict on all domestic and coastwise intercourse in that portion of the late Confederate States east of the Mississippi and within the lines of national military occupation. From this order, however, certain named articles contraband of war were excepted. Military and naval regulations in conflict with his proclamation were revoked. On May 22 following he announced that ports in the same district would be reopened to foreign commerce after July 1, 1865, though certain places in Texas were still denied this privilege.

The insurrection hitherto existing in Tennessee was declared at an end on June 13, 1865. The authority of the United States, this Proclamation asserted, was unquestioned within the limits of that commonwealth, and duly commissioned Federal officials were in undisturbed exercise of their functions. All disabilities attaching to the State and its inhabitants were therefore removed; but nothing contained in the order was to be construed as affecting any of the penalties and forfeitures for treason which had previously been incurred.

Ten days later, June 23, the blockade of Galveston and other ports beyond the Mississippi was rescinded. These were to be opened to foreign trade on the 1st of July succeeding. It was ordered, August 29, 1865, that after September 1 all restrictions upon internal, domestic and coastwise commerce be removed, so that even articles contraband of war might be imported into and sold in the late insurgent States, the necessity for prohibiting intercourse in those articles having in great measure ceased.

In an order dated May 9, 1865, the President declared null and void all acts and proceedings of the military and civil organizations of Virginia which had been in rebellion against the General Government; also that all persons who should exercise or attempt to exercise any authority, jurisdiction or right under Jefferson Davis, and his confederates, or under John Letcher or William Smith,[464] and their confederates, or any pretended commission or authority issued by them, or any of them, since April 17, 1861, would be deemed and taken as in rebellion against the United States, and dealt with accordingly. By the same order the authority of the United States was revived within the geographical limits known as Virginia, and the heads of the several Executive Departments were instructed to enforce therein all Federal laws the administration of which belonged to their respective offices.

To carry into effect the constitutional guaranty of a republican form of government and “afford the advantage and security of domestic laws, as well as to complete the reëstablishment of the authority of the laws of the United States, and the full and complete restoration of peace within the limits aforesaid, Francis H. Pierpont, Governor of the State of Virginia,” was assured of such assistance from the Federal authorities as was believed necessary in any lawful measures that he might adopt for extending the State government throughout that Commonwealth.[465]

The Secretary of the Treasury was directed to nominate without delay assessors of taxes and collectors of customs and internal revenue, and such other officers of his Department as were authorized by law, to execute the revenue laws of the United States. Preference in making appointments was to be given to qualified loyal residents of the districts in which their respective duties were to be performed; but if suitable persons could not be found residing there, then citizens of other States or districts should be named.

In the matter of appointments similar instructions were given to the Postmaster-General, who was empowered to establish post offices and post routes, and to enforce the postal laws of the United States in the State of Virginia.

The heads of the remaining Executive Departments, State, War, Navy and Interior, were likewise ordered to enforce the acts of Congress pertaining to their respective offices. The judge of the United States District Court for Virginia was directed to hold courts in that Commonwealth, while it was made the duty of the Attorney-General to instruct the proper officers to libel and bring to judgment, confiscation and sale, property subject to confiscation, and to provide for the administration of justice within the said State in all matters of which the Federal courts had cognizance.

It was this recognition of his government, and this assurance of support, that induced Mr. Pierpont less than three weeks afterward to remove his capital from Alexandria. An account of this event as well as of the nature of the Governor’s duties in his enlarged jurisdiction, has been anticipated.

In recognizing Mr. Pierpont as Governor of Virginia, President Johnson merely concluded to retain for reconstruction what had already been accomplished by the loyal minority of that Commonwealth. Nor is it easy to perceive why, by rejecting what had been done, he should have increased the difficulties of a situation even then sufficiently complicated. While military governor of Tennessee he had executed, and, so far as appears, without remonstrance, all the measures recommended by Mr. Lincoln, so that when he succeeded to the Presidency he was to some extent committed to the policy of his predecessor. He preserved his consistency by endeavoring to maintain that system in which he had formerly acquiesced, and in sustaining the reconstructed governments of Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia it is somewhat hazardous to affirm that he acted unwisely. More than this the adherents of President Lincoln could not reasonably have expected. Mr. Johnson was not, however, required by any consideration of moment to apply that mode of restoration to the seven remaining States; nor is it by any means certain that he had a legal right to do so. With President Lincoln the problem was to preserve the Union. To effect that object he believed it necessary to institute loyal governments, and his action in so doing appears to have been clearly within his powers as Commander-in-Chief. Had his course been unwise or even prejudicial to national interests, the reorganization of those States was still a legitimate war measure to which his discretion undoubtedly extended. When Andrew Johnson became President, however, the nature of the problem had greatly changed, for even though no proclamation had yet announced the termination of the Rebellion, hostilities had entirely ceased before he issued the first of his orders on reconstruction. It was only by something like a legal fiction, therefore, that the war powers could longer be exercised. It is believed that his failure to recognize the different circumstances was an error of judgment. The danger of a renewal of the conflict was not sufficiently real to justify a continuance of the unlimited authority that might be deemed necessary in time of war. He was aware that Congress had refused to admit representatives or to count electoral votes from those States reorganized during the Rebellion, when the action of the Executive rested on the firm, if somewhat undefined, foundation of the war powers. After a majority, even in these circumstances, had pronounced against that system, on what ground could the new President base his expectation of success? Without first assuring himself of the coöperation of the Legislative branch he should not have undertaken the arduous task of reviving Union governments in those commonwealths where even the very image of civil authority had been effaced. Perhaps he had been convinced that the method of restoration was analogous to the process of terminating war with a foreign power in which the initiative is to be taken by the Executive Department of Government. On this subject Mr. Blaine acutely remarks, that, “There is nothing of which a public officer can be so easily persuaded as of the enlarged jurisdiction that pertains to his station.”[466] It was while executing his measures of reconstruction that Mr. Lincoln discovered the real sentiments and, to his surprise, no doubt, encountered the determined opposition of Congress. In the case of his successor the same excuse cannot be urged, for he was aware of the temper of the Republican majority, and appears to have consulted only his courage in espousing a cause already condemned by many of the most influential leaders of the party to which he principally owed his election.

As the order recognizing the Alexandria government marked no distinct Executive policy, speculation could still amuse or employ itself on the expected announcement by the new President. The first step in that momentous undertaking was the appointment, May 29, 1865, of William W. Holden as Provisional Governor of North Carolina. The order promulgating that measure was as follows:

Whereas the fourth section of the fourth article of the Constitution
of the United States declares that the United States shall guarantee
to every State in the Union a republican form of government, and
shall protect each of them against invasion and domestic violence;
and whereas the President of the United States is, by the
Constitution, made commander-in-chief of the army and navy, as well
as chief civil executive officer of the United States, and is bound
by solemn oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the
United States, and to take care that the laws be faithfully
executed; and whereas the rebellion, which has been waged by a
portion of the people of the United States against the properly
constituted authorities of the Government thereof, in the most
violent and revolting form, but whose organized and armed forces
have now been almost entirely overcome, has, in its revolutionary
progress, deprived the people of the State of North Carolina of all
civil government; and whereas it becomes necessary and proper to
carry out and enforce the obligations of the United States to the
people of North Carolina, in securing them in the enjoyment of a
republican form of government:

Now, therefore, in obedience to the high and solemn duties imposed
upon me by the Constitution of the United States, and for the
purpose of enabling the loyal people of said State to organize a
State government, whereby justice may be established, domestic
tranquillity insured, and loyal citizens protected in all their
rights of life, liberty, and property, I, Andrew Johnson, President
of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of
the United States, do hereby appoint William W. Holden, Provisional
Governor of the State of North Carolina, whose duty it shall be, at
the earliest practicable period, to prescribe such rules and
regulations as may be necessary and proper for convening a
convention, composed of delegates to be chosen by that portion of
the people of said State who are loyal to the United States, and no
others, for the purpose of altering or amending the constitution
thereof; and with authority to exercise, within the limits of said
State, all the powers necessary and proper to enable such loyal
people of the State of North Carolina to restore said State to its
constitutional relations to the Federal Government, and to present
such a republican form of State government as will entitle the State
to the guarantee of the United States therefor, and its people to
protection by the United States against invasion, insurrection, and
domestic violence; _Provided_, that in any election that may be
hereafter held for choosing delegates to any State convention, as
aforesaid, no person shall be qualified as an elector, or shall be
eligible as a member of such convention, unless he shall have
previously taken the oath of amnesty, as set forth in the
President’s proclamation of May 29, A. D. 1865, and is a voter
qualified as prescribed by the Constitution and laws of the State of
North Carolina, in force immediately before the 20th day of May,
1861, the date of the so-called ordinance of secession; and the said
convention when convened, or the Legislature that may be thereafter
assembled, will prescribe the qualifications of electors, and the
eligibility of persons to hold office under the Constitution and
laws of the State, a power the people of the several States
composing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised from the
origin of the Government to the present time.

And I do hereby direct:

_First._ That the military commander of the Department, and all
officers and persons in the military and naval service aid and
assist the said Provisional Governor in carrying into effect this
proclamation, and they are enjoined to abstain from, in any way,
hindering, impeding or discouraging the loyal people from the
organization of a State Government, as herein authorized.

Then followed instructions, similar to those contained in the order of May 9, relative to Virginia, directing the heads of the several Executive Departments to enforce those Federal laws in North Carolina of which the administration belonged to their respective offices.

Somewhat earlier on the same day was published an Amnesty Proclamation, renewing in effect the provisions of that issued by Mr. Lincoln on the 8th of December, 1863. It increased, however, the number of classes excepted from the benefits of the original offer by adding the following:

All persons who have been or are absentees from the United States
for the purpose of aiding the rebellion.

All military and naval officers in the rebel service, who were
educated by the Government in the Military Academy at West Point or
the United States Naval Academy.

All persons who held the pretended offices of governors of States in
insurrection against the United States.

All persons who left their homes within the jurisdiction and
protection of the United States, and passed beyond the Federal
military lines into the pretended confederate States for the purpose
of aiding the rebellion.

All persons who have been engaged in the destruction of the commerce
of the United States upon the high seas, and all persons who have
made raids into the United States from Canada, or been engaged in
destroying the commerce of the United States upon the lakes and
rivers that separate the British Provinces from the United States.

All persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the benefits
hereof by taking the oath herein prescribed, are in military, naval,
or civil confinement, or custody, or under bonds of the civil,
military, or naval authorities, or agents of the United States, as
prisoners of war, or persons detained for offences of any kind,
either before or after conviction.

All persons who have voluntarily participated in said rebellion, and
the estimated value of whose taxable property is over twenty
thousand dollars.

All persons who have taken the oath of amnesty as prescribed in the
President’s proclamation of December 8, A. D. 1863, or an oath of
allegiance to the Government of the United States since the date of
said proclamation, and who have not thenceforward kept and
maintained the same inviolate.[467]

The proclamation provided, however, that persons belonging to the excluded classes could make special application for pardon, when such liberal clemency would be exercised by the President as was deemed consistent with the facts in each case, and with the peace and dignity of the United States.

Secretary Seward, who attested the proclamation, approved its general tenor as well as its details. At first he appears to have opposed the “Twenty-thousand-dollar exclusion,” but finally yielded to the arguments of the President, who by this description had hoped to include a numerous class that did not come under any of those specified. In this respect it possessed the comprehensive as well as the convenient character of a general warrant. All attempts to fix responsibility for secession have proved futile, and it is difficult to explain the President’s attitude toward Southern men of property unless, indeed, he meant to humiliate a class that he personally disliked, or, perhaps, he intended to act upon the principle that to be mild it is necessary first to appear cruel. Precisely why the other classes were excepted from the offer of indemnity the reader of Rebellion literature need not be informed. The amnesty proclamation applied to all the insurgent States.

Like the “Louisiana plan,” the order appointing Mr. Holden was based on that clause of the Federal Constitution which guarantees “to every State in this Union a republican form of government.” It was in his character of Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, as well as Executive, that he assumed to appoint a provisional governor. The Rebellion, which in its progress had “deprived the people of the State of North Carolina of all civil government,” he described as having been “almost entirely overcome.” This condition rendered it necessary to fulfill the Federal obligation to secure to the people of that State a republican form of government. The order being self-explanatory, it only remains to observe that none but “loyal people” were to participate in electing delegates to the convention, which it was made the duty of the Governor to convoke. The term “loyal people” included all who would take the oath and receive the pardon provided for in the proclamation. These were required to be qualified voters under the laws in force immediately before the act of secession. By this provision the negroes of the State were excluded from the electoral people, and the work of reconstruction left entirely in the hands of the whites. The convention chosen by these citizens, or the Legislature that might be thereafter assembled, was authorized to “prescribe the qualifications of electors, and the eligibility of persons to hold office under the constitution and laws of the State, a power,” added the order, which “the people of the several States composing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised from the origin of the Government to the present time.”

Governor Holden in a proclamation of June 12, 1865, announced his appointment and declared his purpose to order an election of delegates to a State convention, the object of calling which was briefly noticed. He also made known his intention to commission justices of the peace for the purpose of administering the oath of allegiance and opening the polls. He urged the people to resume their accustomed pursuits; refugees were encouraged by an offer of protection to return to the State, and freedmen were instructed in the duties peculiar to their altered circumstances.

By a second proclamation, dated August 8, the choice of delegates to the proposed convention was fixed for September 21 succeeding. Some delay in appointing a date for holding the election was occasioned by a desire to afford the people an opportunity of enrolling their names and obtaining the required certificates.